EAST LANSING — Michigan State is already down one returning starter early in preseason camp.

Coach Mark Dantonio on Monday said cornerback Josiah Scott will miss "probably two months" with an unspecified injury suffered during a non-contact drill.

“Man, it was real tough to see,” junior Justin Layne said of his cornerback partner. “I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, but especially Josiah. We’re like right and left and left and right — that’s my boy.

“I called him the other day to make sure his head was on straight, and I told him to just get ready for when he comes back and we’ll pick up where we left off.”

Scott, as a true freshman, helped the Spartans finish 37th in the nation in pass defense at 202.3 yards per game. MSU allowed just 15 passing touchdowns and picked off 14 passes in 2017. Opponents connected on 56.5 percent of their passes, and of those 241 completions against the secondary, only 29 went for 20-or-more yards.

Scott and Layne both at times were honored among the nation’s best on a given week for their job in press coverage, holding opponents under 200 yards passing in eight games and less than 100 twice. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Scott earned Big Ten Network All-Freshman Team honors after making 30 tackles with a pair of interceptions in 12 games.

“It’s a couple months. He’ll be back this year,” defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. “He has a lot of football left in him. … I feel bad for him first and foremost, but he’s really a mentally strong kid, so I know he’ll stay engaged.”

“We'll be all right,” Dantonio said. “Every one of the defensive backs we talked about could play at this level and should be very good players for us.”

Scott is required to sit out the first half of his first game this season due to NCAA targeting rules. He was ejected from the second half of MSU’s Holiday Bowl win for hitting Washington State running back James Williams with his helmet in December.

Dantonio also said defensive end Dillon Alexander is out with a foot injury, which the senior suffered during another non-contact drill.

Alexander started the four of his 11 games last season and finished with four tackles and is in competition with sophomore Jacub Panasiuk and junior Justice Alexander for a starting job.

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Dantonio said sophomore Matt Allen and junior Tyler Higby have been splitting reps at center with the first-team offense. MSU is trying to find a replacement for Allen’s brother, Brian, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in April.

“Really, it's Higby and Matt, and Higby has got a little bit more experience,” Dantonio said.

Center is the only open spot on the offensive line, and returning left guard David Beedle also is in the mix along with redshirt freshman walk-on Blake Bueter, who Dantonio called “a surprise.”

LJ Scott returned for his senior season and will be MSU’s top running back. Sophomore Connor Heyward established himself as the second-string option during spring practices.

Finding that third option, Dantonio said, will be a priority in preseason camp.

“You're looking at who is going to be the third guy or fourth guy,” he said. “Who is going to be a guy that can play a little bit and maybe get on special teams?”

Dantonio said redshirt freshman Weston Bridges “has been exciting to watch” in returning to the field after a knee injury that cost him the 2017 season.

And two true freshmen, La’Darius Jefferson and Elijah Collins, also will have a chance to compete for reps. Jefferson was a state championship high school quarterback at Muskegon, while Collins arrives from U-D Jesuit, and Dantonio said both have “had some runs and they looked good” without the pads. MSU’s first full-contact practice is Tuesday.

Dantonio repeated what he said last week in not wanting to specifically address the situation at Ohio State with coach Urban Meyer and fired assistant coach Zach Smith.

However, the 12th-year MSU coach did discuss a hypothetical as to what would happen if it was his own program.

“Well, as a head football coach, first of all, you know there's a reporting protocol, who reports to us and who we report to, I guess is what I'd say,” Dantonio said. “Obviously if we hear about something, then we're going to report it up the chain and if it goes the other direction, it will come up towards us, if we don't know about it. …

“My policy is if that happens, that we are going to separate them from the football program immediately … and let things sort itself out and see what happens.”